


Lost & Found

by AncientCovenants



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Missing Persons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AncientCovenants/pseuds/AncientCovenants
Summary: It seemed like a normal day in Paris. Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the city from yet another akuma and the latter barely made to back to school before a familiar car and driver arrived to whisk him away.It seemed like any other day in Paris...It was the day Adrien Agreste disappeared.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Lost & Found

Adrien Agreste was claustrophobic.

The irony of being raised in a _literal_ mansion with tons of space did not elude him. His room _alone_ was as big as Marinette’s entire apartment, balcony included.

Sometimes fear wasn’t rational.

And sometimes, he remembered playing with Chloe back when she had been allowed to come over, his mother watching over them with her kind, caring eyes. He remembered the freedom, the love that surrounded him, enveloping him in a warm embrace.

Then he remembered the fainting spells.

When he first saw his mother drop to the ground like a puppet without strings.

When he came home from school one day and found her lying in the garden.

He remembered the fear, the all-encompassing terror winding its terrible tendrils around his heart until he couldn’t breathe.

_“Maman!”_

He had screamed that day, louder than he ever had before, so loud that his throat was sore for days afterwards.

Adrien wasn’t stupid.

He was young but he could tell that something was wrong.

His mother was ill. _Fainting_ wasn’t a sign that everything was all right.

And then came the day when his mother disappeared.

And he couldn’t quite put into words the relief he felt.

She wasn’t suffering anymore. She was finally at peace.

His father stuck to the story about her having gone missing but he knew the truth.

In his heart, he _knew._

That was the day his father had gone cold. Indifferent. Emotionless.

His hopes of one day going to school were dashed. The servants were dismissed. The gates were closed, a physical fortress built to echo the pain in his father’s heart that he could no longer express.

And suddenly the wide open world that beckoned him with its arms outstretched faded into a cage of marble and stone.

And he was alone.

The house he grew up in wasn’t so big anymore.

The doors started to close, one by one, starting with the one to his father’s office. He was always kept busy and confined to his room when he wasn’t eating or studying.

The world that had once seemed so big was no more.

He was a bird whose feathers had been plucked so he could not fly.

So, yes, maybe by others’ standards he had a big room and lived in a huge mansion…

But they had the _world._ To see, to explore. To learn from and grow…

And love.

And be loved in return.

And that, _that_ was freedom in itself.

A freedom he feared he might never feel again as he sat huddled in bed watching the walls close in on him, the one made of glass taunting his tender heart with promises of something he could not have.

Maybe _that_ was why Adrien Agreste was claustrophobic.

But that was all the more reason for his partner, _the miraculous Ladybug,_ to find him. And soon.

Because this was one situation he couldn’t get out of alone.

Plagg was gone. _The ring_ was missing.

And he was in a box that felt far too much like a _coffin_ with no way out.


End file.
